Blog about the Net, Pakistan and more

Monday 30th June 2008

I heard a distant bang about an hour back and assumed it was another
bomb blast. Suddenly there was speculation that it could be in
retaliation to the recent renewed offensive against militants by the
Army. The news said there were two explosions somewhere around
the Army House in Pindi, but nobody could figure out where exactly.
(BBC post)

I started to suspect it could have been the sonic boom from a jet.
Called my mom and she said the booms were really loud around my house.
That must be at least 20km from the suspected epicenter of the blast so
if it was a bomb, it would have had to be a really big one. Else,
the Air Force probably has a better explanation.

Still no confirmation on what happened, but I hope it really was just
a sonic boom.

Update 23:00 PKST The Pakistan Air Force has confirmed via an official statement that it was indeed a sonic boom, created by one of their jets on a routine test flight. Amen for that.

Sunday 29th June 2008

A good friend of mine has launched another construction project by
the name of PakHuts. Their focus
is on the futuristic design and construction of huts in the beautiful
mountainous region around Islamabad. The chalets are quite affordable
and can be great for weekend getaways or as ideal places to live in
peace.

Friendship aside, I'm really impressed with the designs and the
previous projects that these guys have done. Everything is so futuristic
and unlike most local contractors I've come across, they pay meticulous
attention to detail. I've stayed in a couple of places designed and
built by them and the average Pakistani house just can't compare.

Best of luck with everything guys. Hope I'm able to move to one of
these soon.

Playing football has been the most enjoyable thing I've done within
the past week. Though I've played it on and off for quite a while, this
must be the first time I've actually been good at it. And I'm not even
talking about competing against my above-30 (and overweight) friends.
These are my current and ex-colleagues, mostly in their 20s, who aren't
all that bad at footy (maybe it's due to the
cool new shoes).

Football, however, still isn't the most enjoyable sport I've ever
played. It's been over 5 years since I last snowboarded and have longed
to do it again, yet any plans to explore the wonderful slopes of
Pakistan's Northern areas have suffered a serious setback.

That shouldn't stop an avid snowboarder, but it's unlikely that I'll
have the time, money or the company to organize a trip to the still safe
and untouched mountains up north. A trip that will involve searching for a
suitable slope, mapping a route down and a way to get back up again.
Another trip to Hokkaido will probably be easier.

Monday 16th June 2008

With no end in sight to the severe power shortage across the country,
I was thinking about what could be done to make the darker hours easier.
With the cost of generators touching the sky (not to mention the
maintenance hassles, noise and air pollution and the all-time high fuel
costs), other forms of energy look very attractive.

It just came to me that we may even be able to use one of those used
kabuli car generators for this. They are readily available with
most car mechanics and should be a lot cheaper than a commercial
generator, though I'm unaware of their actual efficiency.

Sunday 8th June 2008

I recently got a call on the BlackBerry number informing me
that I had won a million rupees in a lucky draw conducted by
Mobilink
and that I should call back on the same number to claim the prize.

Mobilink actually does have such a
scheme for their Jazz customers,
but the fact that my package doesn't fall into that category and the
manner in which I received the call aroused my suspicions. Why would
Mobilink be calling me from another, recently released mobile number
instead of through a call center? And why should I have to call them
back to claim my prize? Why did the person on the other end sound more
like a kabaddi wrestler than a customer support rep?

A search for
mobilink cash prize
revealed a number of stories on such scams, like
this one by The News and
this blog post by The Pakistani Spectator.
The usual tactic is to get as much of the victim's details as they can
and then ask for pre-paid scratch card numbers or a small amount to
facilitate the transfer of the cash prize. That's a lot like the
Nigerian 419 fraud emails we receive every day, but with a more local
and personal touch.

Convinced that it really is a way to swindle money out of people,
I thought I'd have a little fun and see where things would lead, so I
called them back. The first attempt resulted in a busy signal (they
could have fixed this part to make it more believable). The second call
connected me to a new person who put me on hold with the real Mobilink
jingle being played.

After I had listened to the full ad, another person came on the phone
and greeted me in broken English with something along the lines of
"Mobilink customer support. How I may you help today?". I pretended
not to understand English and he simply guessed that I was calling about
the prize.

Another warning sign with such scams is that they emphasize on the
urgency of the matter. That's what this guy did by telling me how late I
was in calling back and how I should quickly contact their "MD sahib"
(the actual prizes can be claimed within 30 days). While giving me the
MD's contact, he tried making casual chit-chat about what my name was
and what I did, but I finished the conversation without revealing
anything useful.

After calling the new number, another person with a similar accent
answered and put me on hold again with the Mobilink tune playing. This
call was cut off and I didn't want to waste more time on this so just
let it be. However, the earlier person called me after a few hours and
asked if I had talked to their Managing Director. I said that the number
got cut off, but that I'd be willing to pick up the prize in person from
any Mobilink office.

This put the goon on the back-foot and he asked again where I was
calling from. When I said Islamabad/Rawalpindi, he said that I would have
to go all the way to the Mobilink head office in Karachi and that it'll
be more convenient to just talk to their managing director and get it
finalized over the phone. After the call, I was tempted to call them
again in a few hours and tell them that I had taken a flight to Karachi
(who wouldn't do that, given the money involved?), but then decided that
it was enough fun for the day.

A lot of people regularly fall for these kinds of scams so be wary
and don't get suckered into losing even a penny to them. If you really
have won something, you'll know about it through more reliable means. If
there's anyone who I can help in catching these guys, please get in touch.

Saturday 7th June 2008

Soon after this years elections, a wide-scale campaign seems to be in
place to bring down President Musharraf. Ironic, considering that those
fueling this campaign are the very people that were allowed to return to
power by his government.

Retired generals, failed politicians and anybody with a personal
vendetta against the president is coming out of the woodwork and hurling
all sorts of accusations at him. And they won't be content at simply
getting him to resign. They also want to see him burnt at the stake for
crimes as grave as treason.

All the emotionally charged speeches are working well to stir up
trouble across the country and I guess it's a little hard to hope that
ordinary people see through these and force the new overlords to get
their act together and do something positive for a change. However, one
thing that perplexes me is that the majority of people I know are much
in favor of President Musharraf as the leader of the nation. Then where
is the majority that opposes him? Or maybe it's just that I don't move
around in those circles.

After a lengthy silence, the President faced the media today and
cleared up a number of accusations against him, emphasizing on the
reconciliation of the different parties and the betterment of the
country. Off course, the media that his government liberated doesn't
have any qualms about questioning whatever he's said and demonizing him
in any way they can.

Maybe we don't deserve a democratically elected government just yet.
Maybe there's a reason we've prospered in the last few years under a
"dictatorship" while the elected governments have only brought trouble.
God bless Pakistan.

There was a bomb explosion nearby a few minutes ago and we felt the
shock quite strongly. Though most people thought something had fallen
off the roof, my worst suspicions were confirmed when we looked out of
the window and saw a pillar of smoke in the distance.

It looked like some part of sector F-6 and my first response was to
call my cousin who works around the area which I thought was the source
of the smoke. He is fine, but all the windows in his office had
shattered.

The news has just confirmed that it was the Denmark Embassy which
was the target. More details later.

Sunday 1st June 2008

Though a common practice in much of the Western world, daylight savings
time, or summer time, is an alien concept for most Pakistanis. It was last
attempted here in 2002 as an experiment with little success, and is in
place again from roughly 2 hours ago.

I wasn't around the last time this was tried and may look like a bit
of a hassle. However, I'm sold on the benefits and have moved the clocks
forward by an hour. The best benefit I see is that it'll still be light
outside at 8pm and "theoretically", there'll be more time for outdoor
activities (not that I'm ever free for anything other than work these
days).

I'm sure there will be a great outcry from the masses, most who don't
quite understand it (took most people I know a while to "get" it, and
they were a bit more intelligent than the average Joe...er.. Javed). And
already, people are accusing the government of disrupting their prayers
(the timings of which are based on the position of the sun and have
nothing to do with PKT anyway).

The biggest hassle I'll face is getting the servers and my digital
toys to play nicely. Had to manually change the time on the BlackBerry
and the SonyEricsson, the latter of which also conveniently and quite
wrongly, adjusted Los Angeles's time by an hour. Even this post will be
dated an hour earlier since timezone data seldom changes on servers and
I haven't gotten around to patching it manually.

The main reason for the change, saving power in wake of the severe
shortage we're seeing, may be questionable since there will likely be
an increase in energy used for cooling and little savings on that used
for lighting. However, it might help us improve our daily routines for
once and just maybe have more leisure time. I say make full use of it.